Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks are a type of injection, in which malicious scripts are injected into otherwise benign and trusted web sites. XSS attacks occur when an attacker uses a web application to send malicious code, generally in the form of a browser side script, to a different end user. Flaws that allow these attacks to succeed are quite widespread and occur anywhere a web application uses input from a user within the output it generates without validating or encoding it.

An attacker can use XSS to send a malicious script to an unsuspecting user. The end user’s browser has no way to know that the script should not be trusted, and will execute the script. Because it thinks the script came from a trusted source, the malicious script can access any cookies, session tokens, or other sensitive information retained by the browser and used with that site. These scripts can even rewrite the content of the HTML page.

To avoid it, some type of HTML parser can be used or there also exist open source tool like HTML PURIFIER to help us.
There are a number of open-source HTML filtering solutions out there on the web already. What sets HTML Purifier apart from them? Aren't all of these choices “secure”?
When it comes to HTML, attention to detail is key. Does it perform its filtering off a whitelist rather than an out-of-date blacklist? Does it filter every attribute in the document? Does it actually understand HTML?

Know thy enemy. Hackers have a huge arsenal of XSS vectors hidden within the depths of the HTML specification. HTML Purifier is effective because it decomposes the whole document into tokens and removing non-whitelisted elements, checking the well-formedness and nesting of tags, and validating all attributes according to their RFCs. HTML Purifier's comprehensive algorithms are complemented by a breadth of knowledge, ensuring that richly formatted documents pass through unstripped.

To my knowledge, there is nothing else in the wild that offers protection from XSS, standards-compliance, and corrective processing of poorly formed HTML. HTML Purifier is not perfect; it can interact poorly with existing JavaScript on websites, which can introduces vulnerabilities after the fact. However, it is pretty damn good. Do your research and try out the demo.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

2014 saw the much awaited funding rush in the Indian startup
ecosystem, an industry which otherwise has been driven by only passion.
Startups grew exponentially and so did the aspirational value of working
in a startup. Freshers from top engineering and management institutes
considered working in a startup at par (or even better) with that of
MNCs of the world. Senior management was also opening up to experiment
to the roller-coaster ride of startups and many of them decided to steer
the ships for them.

In all, one can confidently say that the Indian startups have moved
from being ‘just a cool place to work for’ to ‘an aspirational place to
make dreams come true, for yourself and for others. We, at YourStory,
have always believed in the power of dreams and encouraged the young
professionals to be a part of startups through our sincere efforts in
the form of series like Awesome Startup Employee or the Fabulous Startup
Workplaces.

Here’s another humble attempt to showcase India’s top startup
destinations which promises a great deal of work, values and learnings
to the professionals and freshers out there.

These companies have been selected based on the following parameters:

1. Founded in 2010 or later
2. Minimum revenue and/or funding of INR 3 Cr
3. Minimum team size of 20

Founding year – 2010Location – PuneSector – CRM ProductRevenue Slab – 3-10 crInvestor – Nexus VenturesWhy you should work here - They are building an on-demand
product and scaling it quickly which can take the SaaS mobile industry
by storm. And if you become the new joinee in the existent pool of
talented people at HelpShift, you get a Macbook Pro, all day food and a
good amount of amusement in office like Foosball, XBox 360 and PS3.

Founding Year – 2010Location – GoregaonSector- Customer InternetRevenue Slab- 3-10 crInvestor- India QuoitentWhy you should work here – Being VC
funded, and having achieved break-even, this high growth company offers
a stable opportunity. Core team members share in the upside through
ESOPs. Clearly, there’s an opportunity to take part in building a large
consumer internet company.

Founding Year – 2012Location – BangaloreSector – EcommerceRevenue Slab – 3 to 10 crInvestor – Accel PartnersWhy should you work here - You can be a part of the team that is changing the 150 year old tea industry.

Founding Year – 2010Location – BangaloreSector – Travel TechnologyRevenue – 3 to 10 crInvestor- CIIE, Hyderabad AngelsWhy should you work here- Passion(for their work)
is in the DNA of Thrillophilia team. Along with whatever they do, team
members also live travel, breathe travel, and even dream about it
sometimes. They are trying to change the way the local experiences and
activities are booked in India till date. Here is a quick overview of
what it is like working at Thrillophilia! – http://www.slideshare.net/thrillophilia/why-work-at-thrillophilia

Founding Year – 2012Location – MumbaiSector – MarketPlace / EcommerceInvestor - Yuri Milner, Softbank, Nexus VP, Helion VP, Qualcomm VenturesWhy should you work here- You will get to do work that makes you feel proud!

Founding Year- 2012Location – MumbaiSector – Retail TechnologyRevenue - <3 crInvestor - Kae Capital, Powai Lake VenturesWhy should you work here - They are a bunch of fighter, jugaadu, enthusiastic (and cracked up) people with an aim to change the world using technology.

Founding Year – 2012Location – GurgaonSector – Retail TechnologyRevenue - >20 crInvestor – Rocket InternetWhy should you work here - The company promises
candidates with the right set of skills for the right kind of job, a
handsome pay package, a work-life balance and a positive environment to
work in.

Founding Year – 2010Location – BangaloreSector – EducationRevenue – 3-10 crInvestor - William Bissel, MD Fab IndiaWhy should you work here - Join them to change the Education map. They also claim to have almost 0% attrition.

Founding Year – 2013Location – BangaloreSector – Real EstateRevenue - <3 crInvestors - Kalaari Capital, India QuotientWhy should you work here - GrabHouse gives their
employees: a) Ownership – Be it any position or department, every person
in the team sits in the driver seat from day 1; b) Culture – Open and
people friendly culture where work is not counted by hours but by
impact; c) Impact – Everyday people get to work on ideas that changes
the way Grabhouse works and real estate industry in India operates; and
d) Peers – Every person teaches something to another.

Founding Year – 2013Location – GurgaonSector- Hyper-local activitiesRevenue - <3 crInvestors - Sequoia CapitalWhy should you work here - According to them, you
shouldn’t. As a job – the hours are long, the work is tough, the pay is
low and the future is unclear. If it’s still fascinating, go join the
mission.

Founding Year – 2012Location – Gurgaon, HaryanaSector – Mobile InternetInvestor - Tiger Global & Bharti SoftBankWhy should you work here - If you’re passionate
about making an impact on millions of lives, Hike might excite you.
Apart from the challenging work environment, they also give to our
employees a lot of perks – http://get.hike.in/career.html

Founding Year – 2010Location – MumbaiSector – Social Media/MobileRevenue – 3 to 10 crWhy should you work here - They believe happy people
build great products and they do everything possible to keep the team
in a good state of mind. You can read about our culture here http://qr.ae/lNIJh

Founding Year – 2013Location – New DelhiSector – SaaS Ad TechRevenue - <3 crInvestor - 50 angelsWhy should you work here – The company prefers to leave it to the jobseekers and expects them to take a call after going through this: http://careers.adpushup.com

Founding Year – 2010Location – BangaloreSector – Board GamesRevenue – 3-10 crInvestor – Blume Ventures, AngelsWhy should you work here – People in MadRat are
generally hyper. They’re very curious and almost restless to a point. At
the same time they’re very focused on what they do. Making world class
games and products is on everybody’s mind. So if you have a spring in
your step and appetite for challenge, then press the Play button!

Founding Year- 2013Location – San FranciscoSector – Big DataWhy should you work here – The company maintains an open source tech work culture with flat organizational structure and flexible work timings.

Founding Year- 2013Location – Navi MumbaiSector – E-LearningRevenue – <3 crWhy should you work here – The company says that the
atmosphere (no dress-code) and the impact you create while working here
should be encouraging enough to join the team.

Founding Year – 2010Location – MumbaiSector – HealthcareRevenue – >20crInvestor – Seedfund, Asian Healthcare FundWhy should you work here – MyDentist team embrace
diversity to create a place where everyone can be themselves. They treat
each other with respect and dignity.

Founding Year – 2011Location – New DelhiSector – Customer ServicesRevenue – <3crInvestor – Sequoia CapitalWhy should you work here – They are building the
go-to platform for customer service. If you’ve ever faced a product /
service issue, you’ll know the pain and willing to work with them to
ease that out.

Founding Year – 2012Location – GurgaonSector – Metals, Chemicals, Plastics, Paints, PolymersRevenue – >20crInvestor – Inventus Capital, Kalaari Capital, Accel PartnersWhy should you work here – What makes an
organization successful, are two key factors: People working in the
company and its culture. The team at Power2SME are amongst the best in
the business and make it a point to value each and every employee and
aim at honing their skills. They’re sure that anyone joining our
company, will help them in carve out a niche for them and gradually
becoming the best in the business. They strongly believe in ‘Happy
People makes a happy organization’.

Founding Year – 2010Location – BangaloreSector – E-learningRevenue – >20crInvestor – Helion Ventures and Kalaari CapitalWhy should you work here – They have grown in leaps
and bounds in last four years. The company is continuously growing and
that ensures growth for the employees too. Associating with the company
will definitely provide a learning curve as well a chance to grow. If
you are a performer and have the zeal to learn and explore new
avenues, they are the right choice as an employer.

Founding Year – 2012Location – DelhiSector – EcommerceInvestors – Nexus VenturesWhy should you work here – It’s a product company
with an exceptional growth record, equally huge growth potential and the
average age below 25 yrs making it suitable for young professionals.

Founding Year – 2012Location – GurgaonSector – Content MonitizationRevenue – 3-10 crInvestors – ValueFirst Digital MediaWhy should you work here – BuyT is all about
performance and ROI driven marketing. Leaving behind successful careers
in technology, corporate strategy and finance, they are motivated by
the challenge to revolutionize advertising in today’s platform-focused,
hyper-connected and mobile-first world. Young, eclectic, vibrant – if
you can identify with these, BuyT is the place for you!

Founding Year – 2012Location – New DelhiSector – EcommerceInvestor – Nirvana Venture Advisors, 500 Startups, BeenosWhy should you work here – The Delhi-based startup
work, play and party together. They believe in passion driven work more
than anything else. At Kartrocket, you are your own boss. They also
claim to pay good salaries(10-15% higher than the industry standard).
The company says, “In short, We are the company you will miss on
Sundays.”

Founding Year – 2011Location – Gurgaon, HaryanaSector – EcommerceRevenue – >20 crInvestor - Sequoia Capital, Intel Capital, Omidiyar Network, Kae CapitalWhy should you work here – HealthKart’s goal is the
create the trusted consumer brand which makes any quality health product
available in the globe to consumer’s doorstep. People passionate about
healthcare and technology should consider joining the 350+ motivated
team in company’s growth journey. The association will offer rapid
development platform, where you would be challenged to get the best
amongst you.

Founding Year – 2012Location – MumbaiSector – EcommerceRevenue – >20crInvestor – Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and Bertelsmann India Investments (BII)Why should you work here – Pepperfry has built a
leadership position in the online home and furniture segment with its
scale and strengths in sourcing products, strong logistics, ably
supported by a highly experienced management team. Working at Pepperfry
guarantees that people would handle large areas of responsibility, be
business owners and actively influence the future course of the company.

Founding Year – 2013Location – BangaloreSector – Digital PublishingRevenue – <3crWhy should you work here – At Papertrell, you’ll be
reimagining books; be a leader, not a follower; play a direct role in
the future of publishing; you can argue with the CEO, he’ll like you for
it; you’ll work for the ‘Most Innovative Publishing start-up in the
world'(according to Frankfurt Book Fair 2014); you get top $; and you
get free lunch every day, beer during IPL matches.

Founding Year – 2010
Location – ChennaiSector – SaaSInvestor – Accel Partners, Tiger Global, Google CapitalWhy someone you should work here – At
Freshdesk, they pride themselves on building powerful, sophisticated
software that’s fun and easy to use. Their approach is to find the best
people, empower them to succeed, and set them loose. They foster a
workplace that makes people jump out of bed every morning with a smile
on their face. Freshdesk has been consistently rated as one of India’s
hottest startups, and is the only Indian company backed by Google
Capital.

Founding Year – 2011Location – GurgaonSector – Warehouse AutomationRevenue – 10-20 crInvestor – Tiger Global, Blume VenturesWhy should you work here – Because they are creating
the next billion dollar hardware company in India with a mini
university-like, fun, energetic team (they have got Mechanical,
Electronics, Computer Science, and Embedded Engineering departments
apart from equally interesting Business Analysis, Development and
Operations teams).

Founding Year – 2011Location – BangaloreSector – Mobile Point of Sale solutionsInvestors – AngelPrime, Social+Capital Partnership, Helion Advisors, American ExpressWhy should you work here – With industry-specific
services built around payments, Ezetap is changing the way enterprises,
small and home-run business are getting paid. Ezetap is live in multiple
countries across Africa and South East Asia.

Founding Year – 2011Location – BangaloreSector – Technology and TransportRevenue – >20crInvestors – Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Blume VenturesWhy should you work here – TaxiForSure combines the
best of the start-up and corporate worlds. With freedom to innovate and a
hands-on approach to work, the company is a young and energetic place
to work in. TaxiForSure is seeing exponential growth and the company has
attracted funding from leading national and international investors.
The company boats of talent drawn from top Technology and B-schools in
the country and abroad. Flexible work hours, open work spaces and a fun
company culture are added positives of working with this company.

Founding Year – 2011Location – BangaloreSector – TravelRevenue – 10-20 crInvestors – K GaneshWhy should you work here – The company says, “We hire rockstars who want to grow faster and take full ownership of work they do.”

Founding Year – 2010Location – Bangalore/MumbaiSector – Consumer InternetWhy should you work here – Focused heavily on
growth, FreeCharge is a venture backed firm that has a very driven work
culture and lot of opportunities for employees to flourish. The
leadership team is highly entrepreneurial and this gives a lot of
opportunities to folks working there to learn.

Founding Year – 2011Location – MumbaiSector – Consumer InternetRevenue - > 20crWhy should you work here – Acquired by Times
Internet, CouponDunia has the flexibility of a startup and the security
of being backed. The website gets more than 4 million visits a month and
their app has more than 500k downloads.

Founding Year – 2010Location – Gurgaon/Santa ClaraSector – EdTechWhy should you work here – StudyPad is an ed-tech
company focused on transforming the early childhood learning experience.
It’s vision is to make education truly new-age by seamlessly
integrating immersive digital products into the curriculum. They are #1
math apps publisher on the iOS App Store. StudyPad’s products have been
used by close to 10 million kids around the world.

Founding Year – 2012Location – Gurgaon & San FranciscoSector – Marketing TechnologyRevenue – 3-10 CroreInvestors – IDG Ventures, 500 Startups, Unilazer Ventures, Palaash Ventures, TA Ventures, GSF AcceleratorWhy should you work here – The company says, “You
get to work with a group of dedicated young breed of data scientists and
developers from US and India, lots of food, flexible work hours, growth
and learning as par with the top companies in the world. If you have,
what it takes to build a world class product, hop into the team.”

Founding year – 2013Location – BangaloreSector – Real estate and communicationInvestor – CommonFloorWhy you should work here – The team is working on
novel, design-focused real-estate products. Recently launched Flatchat
has been gaining traction. The small team has a good mix of product and
marketing folks. The culture is a lot of fun. You also get to ‘getaway’
twice an year.

Founding year – 2014Location – BangaloreSector – Online Home Interiors and MarketplaceRevenue – 10-20 CroreInvestor – raised 15 Cr. (investor not yet disclosed)Why you should work here – The company says – “You get to work
with people who live and breathe Technology, work on the latest web
technology stack(s), and learn how to build scalable, secure and state
of the art Web platforms. The leadership team is experienced and
seasoned entrepreneurs with track record of building multiple
start-ups.”

And some more…

As a part of this survey, we reached out to several startups and we’re yet to hear from the following companies:

Heckyl aims to be a global leader in the space of information
analytics for worldwide financial markets. They strive to raise the bar
with everything that they offer and shall continue to do so till hell
freezes over.

LocalBanya is one of the leading destination for online grocery
shopping in Mumbai, offering some of the best prices and a completely
hassle-free experience. Now shop for the freshest exotic Fruits,
Vegetables, Pulses, Rice, Oil, Milk, Personal Care, Household supplies,
Baby Care, Beverages and products from a host of other categories
available.

They are building and managing hospitals/clinics in semi-urban and
rural areas and bringing healthcare services where it is needed most.
Vaatsalya is India’s first hospital network focused on Tier II and Tier
III towns.